Bulked continuous filament yarns



Nov. 6, 1962 G. BLOCH 3,061,998

BULKEDy coNTNUoUs FILAMENT mRNsf Filed Nov. 12, 1959 ATTORNEY 3,061,998 gg@ Patented Nov. 6,1962

United States Patent 3,061,998 BULKED CONTINUOUS FILAMENT YARNS Godfrey Bloch, 3S E. 75th St., New York, N.Y.

Filed Nov. 12, 1959, Ser. No. 852,515 7 Claims. (Cl. 57-140) This invention relates to synthetic continuous filament arns.

y An object is to provide a yarn of the above type having novel and improved characteristics.

Another object is to provide a novel and improved bulked continuous filament synthetic yarn.

Various other objects and advantages will be apparent as the nature of the invention is more fully disclosed.

This application is a continuation-in-part of my copending application Serial No. 497,776 filed March 29, 1955 for Synthetic Yarns, Fabrics and Methods of Making Same, now abandoned.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention two bundles of continuous filaments composed of the same or of different synthetic materials and der'ived from separate spinnerets feeding into the same or into different spinning baths are so processed that the two bundles of filaments have different shrinkage characteristics. These -bundles are then combined and subjected toV treatment adapted to shrink the various filaments in the bundle.

' As a result of this differential shrinkage one group of filaments becomes shorter than the'other group thereby causing the longer filaments to pull up and deviate from a straight line condition into gathers, puckers, folds, loops, or other shapes, herein referred to generally as crimps, at various points along their length and thereby form a bulked yarn.

Alternatively the combined bundle of filaments may be spun into yarn prior to the shrinkage treatment, fabricated into a finished fabric as by knitting, weaving, or tufting, after which the product may be subjected to shrinkage treatment for causing the yarn to bulk in the manner above set forth.

' In a further embodiment the bulking effect may be obtained by feeding two groups of filaments into a cornmon bundle at different rates whereby the overfed group is caused to pull up into crimps to produce a bulky yarn as above specified.

In any of the above instances the various filaments may be joined at spaced intervals or at the points of crossover if desired as by suitable heat treatment or by the use of suitable adhesives. This effect may also be obtained by combining crimped filaments with straight uncrimped filaments which are joined at points of contact. In any case the yarn is composed of a combination of straight filaments and crimped filaments, the straight filaments giving the yarn dimensional stability and the crimped filaments providing the necessary bulking effect.

The nature of the invention will be better understood by referring to the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which certain specific embodiments thereof have been set forth for purposes of illustration.

In the drawing: n

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view illustrating one method of producing a bulked yarn in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a similar view illustrating a different sequence of steps in carrying out the invention;

FIG. 3 is a similar diagrammatic view illustrating the steps involved in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail View illustrating inv exaggerated form a yarnembodying the invention.

Referring to the drawing more in detail, FIG. 1 illustrates a process wherein continuous filaments are extruded from spinnerets 1 and 2 respectively into spinning baths 3 and 4 respectively from which they are withdrawn by feed rolls 5 and 6 respectively as filament bundles 7 and 8. In the spinning baths 3 and 4 the filaments are coagulated, drawn and fixed in accordance with standard spinning techniques to produce synthetic filaments having shrinkage characteristics which depend upon the amount of drawing and the fixation to which they have been subjected, including the amount they have been allowed to stabilize by shrinking and relaxing under heat or steam.

In carrying out the above process the rolls 5 and 6 may be operated at the same speed, the preliminary treatment of the bundles in advance of rolls 5 and 6 may be such that bundle 7 has been relaxed more than 8 and is thus in a more dimensionally stable state.

This could include producing bundle 7 at a faster rate so that after the shortening due to relaxing it may still be fed at the same rate as bundle 8. Hence the bundle 7 `is more highly stretched than the bundle 8 and consequently has higher shrinkage characteristics than the bundle 8.

In another embodiment one of the filament bundles, such as the bundle 7, may be processed in the bath by stretching and finishing in the usual manner but without relaxing, while the other bundle, such as bundle 8, may be processed by stretching, finishing and relaxing to cause the same to shrink so that upon subsequent treatment the bundle 8 will shrink slightly, if at all, whereas the bundle 7 when relaxed will shrink to a substantial extent.

The filament bundles 7 and 8 are combined at feed rolls 9 to form a combined bundle 10 of continuous filaments in substantially parallel relationship. This bundle 10 is fed through a heating zone indicated as a pipe 11 carrying steam or a heated liquid for shrinking the shrinkable filaments.

When these filaments are passed in contact through the heater 11 wherein they are subjected to shrinkage conditions the filaments 7 contract a greater extent than the filaments 8 thereby causing the filaments 8 to have an excess length which is pulled up into crimps 15 to form a bulked filament bundle which is then spun into yarn form on the ring twister 13 and is wound onto a package 14 for subsequent use.

In carrying out this process the filaments extruded from the two spinnerets are preferably of the same composition, although in some instances the two bundles may be composed of different materials. Such filaments may be composed for example of polypropylene, polyethylene, Vinyon, Dynel, Saran, Orlon, nylon, or other materials which are suitable for making synthetic textile fibers.

If, for example, the filaments are composed of polypropylene it may be assumed that the filaments extruded from the spinneret 1, after coagulation and stretching for orientation with whatever relaxation is needed are stretched by an additional 18% to 20%, whereas the filaments extruded from the spinneret 2 are stretched by au additional 1% to 2% only.

The filament bundle 7 may thus have shrinkage characteristics 18% to 20% greater than the filament bundle 8.

After shrinkage the filaments in bundle 8 will accordingly have a length correspondingly greater than the more shrinkable filaments of the bundle 7.

' The same general percentage characteristics would apply to filaments composed of the other synthetic materials above mentioned.

The filaments in the -bundles 7 and 8 may be of the same denier or may be of different deniers. Preferably the more highly shrinkable filaments in the bundle 7 are of larger denier than the less highly shrinkable filaments in the bundle 8. A

The filaments 7 may for example be five denier and the shrinkable filaments in the bundle 8 of two denier. In this way the finer filaments are pulled up into crimped form and bulked in the final product.

In the above process the filaments after being stretched as above indicated by the rolls 5 and 6 respectively are set in a conventional manner so as to retain their stretched length until relaxed by treatment in the tube 11. The various synthetic filaments above named after being stretched and set under tension are relaxed by heat or heat and moisture and upon relaxation are allowed to shrink to the extent above set forth.

As a further example polyacrylic filaments such as Orlon or Dynel may be given a stretch in the spinning bath of the order of some 900% and subjected to the usual finishing step to produce a filament which is highly shrinkable upon being relaxed by heat. One set of filaments, such as the filaments in the bundle 8, may be subjected to heat treatment to relax the filaments and allow them to shrink into a dimensionally stable condition whereas the relaxing step is omitted in the treatment of the filaments in the bundle 7. Then when the combined filaments are subjected to shrinkage treatment as above mentioned the filaments in the bundle 7 shrink by some 18% to 20% of their original length to pull up the filaments 8 into crimped form and form a bulked yarn as above mentioned.

This process is preferably carried out continuously with the spinning of the filaments as above set forth. In some instances however it may be desirable to package the filaments after stretching and setting and before combining them into a single bundle or yarn which is subjected to the shrinkage treatment above mentioned.

In the embodiment of FIG. 2 the filament bundles 7 and 8 are produced as in FIG. l. In this figure however the bundle is spun into yarn form prior to the shrinkage treatment and is then fabricated into a woven, knitted or tufted fabric, after which the fabric is subjected to treatment as in a dryer or oven 20 to effect the shrinkage of the filaments as above mentioned thereby causing the yarn to bulk and produce a fabric having the characteristics of a fabric made from spun yarn.

A further embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 3 wherein two bundles of filaments 21 and 22 which are composed of any` of the synthetic materials above mentioned or combinations thereof, are fed by rolls 23 and 24 respectively to a roll 25 wherein they are cornbined into a bundle 26.

In this form the rolls 23 may be operated at a higher feed rate than the rolls 24 so that the bundle 21 is overfed with respect to the bundle 22 thereby causing the excess length of filaments in the bundle 21 to crimp and produce a bulked yarn 26 having the characteristics above mentioned.

In any of the above embodiments the filaments may be bonded together at intervals by suitable means as by a heating element which is adapted to contact the yarn at intervals or to apply heat thereto at intervals for softening the synthetic filaments and causing them to become bonded together or by applying a bonding adhesive to the filaments at spaced points along their path of travel. Dynel for example may be heat softened to a bondable state at temperatures of the order of 180 to 250. Alternatively Dynel or Orlon may be softened by a solvent such as acetone or Saran may be softened by a solvent such as methyl ketone for causing the filaments to bond to adjacent filaments at points of contact. Alternatively Dynel filaments may be bonded together by the application of an adhesive such as neoprene rubber in methyl ethyl ketone or other adhesives commonly used for bonding synthetic fabrics. Saran itself may be used as an adhesive for Saran filaments. This bonding of the filaments together may take place at points 27 as indicated in FIG. 4 and serves to maintain the crimps relatively uniformly spaced along the filaments.

Alternatively the bundle may be heated throughout its length or a bonding agent applied uniformly therealong for bonding the vvarious filaments at their points of crossover.

In a further embodiment of the invention continuous synthetic filaments which have been previously crimped in any known manner as for example by false twisting techniques or stuffer crimper techniques may be combined with uncrimped continuous filaments of the same material with or without treatment to provide bonding at the points of crossover between adjacent filaments to thereby produce a bulked yarn having dimensional stability.

In a further embodiment the shrinkable and non-shrinkable filaments may be composed of different materials, for example the more readily bondable filaments may be composed of Dynel; whereas the non-shrinkable and less readily bondable filaments may be composed of Orlon. When the Dynel and Orlon filaments are blended and heated to a temperature to cause the Dynel filaments to shrink, these filaments may then become softened to an extent such that they bond to the Orlon filaments at points of crossover thereby causing the latter to pull up into crimps and form a bulked yarn as above described. Similar results may be obtained with other combinations of bondable and less bondable filaments.

In the above examples the less shrinkable filament component may be composed of a plurality of individual filaments, the more highly shrinkable component may be composed of a plurality of filaments or in some instances of a monolament.

Obviously the terms crimped and straight, shrinkable and non-shrinkable, bondable and non-bondable and dimensionally stable are used herein in a relative sense only.

The bundles can be combined by opening the individual bundles as by an air jet or by separating the filaments by suitable guides and combining the bundles with the various filaments interleaved uniformly or with one group predominantly on the outside and the other group predominantly on the inside.

Also two bundles of different characteristics may be obtained by extrusion of two materials` of different compositions from a composite spinneret wherein one material is extruded, for example, through openings disposed around the center of the spinneret and the other composition is extruded from openings disposed around the periphery so that the filaments from the latter openings are disposed largely` on the outside of the finished bundle while the filaments from the first openings are disposed on the inside. In this case two materials which are capable of being processed in substantially the` same manner, or coagulated in the same bath, or in air, may be used. For example, Saran and cellulose acetate which may both be air dried may be used in this process. When these materials are subjected to the same processing as would be necessary for the treatment of the composite bundle, they rwill haver different shrinkagey characteristics which render them suitable for making the bulked yarn as above described.

What is claimed is:

l. A bulked dimensionally stable singles yarn composed of a plurality of continuous filaments, certain of said continuous filaments being uniformly crimped throughout at least a portion of their length to provide bulk and others of said continuous filaments being in relatively straight form to provide dimensional stability, said crimped and straight filaments being randomly disposed throughout the cross-section of said yarn.

2. A bulked dimensionally stable singles yarn composed of a plurality of continuous filaments, certain of said continuous filaments being uniformly crimped throughout substantially their entire length to provide bulk and others of said continuous filaments being in relatively straight form to provide dimensional stability, said crimped and straight filaments being randomly disposed throughout the cross-section of said yarn.

3. A bulked dimensionally stable singles yarn consisting of a plurality of continuous filaments, certain of said filaments being uniformly crimped throughout substantially their entire length to provide bulk, others of said lfilaments being substantially straight throughout their entire length to provide dimensional stability, said iilaments being twisted into the form of a twisted singles yarn, said crimped filaments being randomly disposed throughout at least a substantial portion of the cross sectional area of said yarn.

4. A bulked dimensionally stable singles yarn cornposed of a plurality of continuous filaments, certain of said continuous filaments being uniformly crimped throughout at least a portion of their length to provide bulk and others of said continuous filaments being in relatively straight form to provide dimensional stability, said crimped and straight lilaments being randomly disposed throughout the cross-section of said yarn, said crimped and straight filaments being bonded together at points of crossover.

5. A bulked dimensionally stable singles yarn composed of a plurality of continuous laments, certain of said continuous filaments being uniformly crimped throughout substantially their entire length to provide bulk and others of said continuous filaments being in relatively straight form to provide dimensional stability, said crimped and straight filaments being randomly disposed throughout the cross-section of said yarn, said crimped and straight filaments being bonded together at points of crossover.

6. A bulked dimensionally stable singles yarn consisting of a plurality of continuous laments, certain of said tilaments being uniformly crimped throughout substantially their entire length to provide bulk, others of said filaments being substantially straight throughout their entire length to provide dimensional stability, said filaments being twisted into the form of a twisted singles yarn, said crimped and straight filaments being bonded together at points of crossover, said crimped filaments being randomly disposed throughout at least a substantial portion of the cross-sectional area of said yarn.

7. A bulked continuous filament yarn as set forth in claim 4 in which certain of said filaments are composed of a more readily bondable material than others of said filaments, said more readily bondable laments bonding said other ilaments at points of crossover.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,218,633 Bell et al Oct. 22, 1940 2,252,999 Wallach Aug. 19, 1941 2,254,881 Bell Sept. 2, 1941 2,328,074 Hunter Aug. 31, l1943 2,369,395 Heymann Feb. 13, 1945 2,504,523 Harris et al Apr. 18, 1950 2,701,406 Bloch Feb. 8, 1955 2,810,281 Appleton et al. Oct. 22, 1957 2,904,953 Groombridge et al Sept. 22, 1959 2,979,883 Waltz Apr. 18, 1961 2,980,492 Jamieson et al. Apr. 18, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 804,151 Great Britain Nov. l2, 1958 

